Thomas Whiteside was an American journalist born in 1918. Whiteside wrote for The New Yorker for over 45 years. He covered such topics in his articles and books as cable television, the cigarette industry, the channel tunnel, chemical weapons (notably 2, 4, 5-T, a component of Agent Orange), Ralph Nader, Stig Wennerstrom, and yellow rain. It has been said that Whiteside's work on Agent Orange led directly to the congressional hearings which discussed the dangers of the substance. By the end of the hearings, the Surgeon General of the United States had announced restrictions on the use of the herbicide. The collection contains material related to the articles that Whiteside contributed to The New Yorker. The files include audiocassettes, book reviews, correspondence, drafts, galleys, notebooks and notes, research files, and typescripts. There is a small section of the collection that contains personal papers not tied directly to specific articles or books. The material ranges in date from the 1950s to the 1990s, spanning the time Whiteside worked at The New Yorker.